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Hi Mark!I need help....badly. I'm sick and tired of foods, especially potatoes sticking to my knives and I don't know what to do. Can you please point me to your secret "Magic Knives" category that makes chopped foods fall away from the sides?

The answer, generally, is well-ground knives that are thicker behind the edge.

Keep in mind, all knives must reckon with the power of friction. There is no perpetual-motion knife.

Glestain has gotten high marks for their crazy design working. Other than that, there is no observable evidence that Grantons of any sort work.

Outside of that, when you are deciding how to grind a knife, you are trying to balance, among other things, flatness vs convexity. A dead-flat blade face will feel more like it just falls through soft foods like strawberries or apples, but will stick and drag severely. A full-height convex blade face will experience far less food sticking, and feel efficient when, say, dividing meat into cuts, but will wedge in harder foods and feel bulky in most vegetables.

So, if you want less sticking, you are going to pay for it by having a knife that is thicker behind the edge. The best would be a double-bevel Kasumi knife that is thick and beefy behind the edge, sharpened to have a crisp shoulder.

Some guys like Shigefusa and Takeda forge or grind a slight hollow into the blade face to try to help push the boundaries of this balance.

It's funny how complicated a good kitchen knife can be when you start breaking it down. This is one example. The way to solve stickiness is by convexing the blade. The way to make a knife fall through food is by making it thin with a steep edge. The thing is, the thinner you make the knife the less convexing you can do. The Konosuke's are a good example of a knife that does both reasonably well. A knife like the misono ux10 is a thin knife that is very sticky. The Takayuki Ginsan Gyuto is an example of a thick knife that has great convexing.

_________________Embracing the silence amid a life and land full of static...

WickedSharp

Post subject: Re: Anti Sticky Blades

Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:03 pm

Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:23 pmPosts: 205

I have noticed that polishing the blade often reduces stickiness. Satin finish blades look cool and are popular, but food tends to stick to them more. So polishing the blade often helps, especially if it is a thicker blade, like the Kanehiro gyutos.

_________________WickedSharpZen in the Art of Knife Sharpening“If one really wants to be master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an ‘artless art’ growing out of the Unconscious.” Eugen Herrigel

The proof is, indeed, in Salty's videos. Here is one on how to polish your blade to help keep food from sticking. Salty often remarks on how a polished blade helps in this regard... (I use a Dremel tool, but Salty's method works as well).

_________________WickedSharpZen in the Art of Knife Sharpening“If one really wants to be master of an art, technical knowledge of it is not enough. One has to transcend technique so that the art becomes an ‘artless art’ growing out of the Unconscious.” Eugen Herrigel

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